OBITUARIES: John W. Brigham

UU World: The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, May/Jun 2004

The Rev. Dr. John W. Brigham died January 23, 2004, of complications from congestive heart failure. He was 89 years of age.

Brigham was born November 26, 1914, in Concord, Massachusetts. He received a U.A. from Tufts University, an S.T.B. from the Crane School of Theology, and a D.D. from Meadville Lombard Theological School.

He was ordained in 1938 by First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts, and served congregations in Castine, Maine; Billerica, Massachusetts; Sioux City and Burlington, Iowa; Rochester, New York; and Quincy, Illinois. In addition, he served as field representative for the Stevens Fellowship Committee for the American Unitarian Association from 1959 to 1961 and was associate director of the UUA's Department of Ministry from 1961 to 1966. Upon his retirement in 1982, the Unitarian Church of Quincy, Illinois, and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Burlington, Iowa, named him minister emeritus.

Brigham's concerns centered on social justice issues. He was president of the Sioux City chapter of the NAACP, and in Quincy he actively supported the Walter Hammond Day Care Center. He also served on the steering committee for the POLIS study program of Quincy University, a program offering educational opportunities to retirees.

He is survived by his wife of on years, Anna Louise Dege Brigham, three sons, six grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.